When Tagfish premiered in Belgium in July 2010, its makers were not as yet sure how it would resound with an audience which was not German. Thankfully, there was something about Tagfish, which, as its director put it, “was able to appeal to audiences in many different places, from Paris to Seoul.” And recently, Tagfish was played in Singapore, at the National Musuem.
Tagfish is a documentary performance about UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein, in Essen, Germany. Abandoned by industry, it is looking to put its current state of empty industrial heritage to a revival by possibly constructing a design school, a luxury hotel with boutiques, hip bars as well as an entertainment centre. One person interested in investing in this project is Sheik Hani Yamani, from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But selling and reviving a World Heritage Site is not so easy, as the performance aims to show.
Bringing together six individuals who have never met, but who have an interest in the Zollverein project: an architect, the town planner, a professor, a journalist, the negotiator and the provocateur. In it, they discuss, hypothesise, theorise and argue over the feasibility of this project, and if the whole thing is ever going to happen at all. The exploratory but inconclusive performance is actually quite humorous for all its solemnity and intensity – its simplicity in presentation amplifies the players’ quirky characteristics, and it was, surprisingly, not at all dull watching six old German men just talking at a table.
The performance was something else totally unexpected. There was a huge meeting table with seven chairs, and in each chat sat a screen which was to show each man individually, as though they were sitting and discussing the issue in front of the audience. The table was a special contraption, of which objects could be manipulated, like glasses moving to each gentleman, book flipping and the unrolling of a map. As opposed to other non-traditional art forms where film would be used to supplement the performance, in this case, the film itself was the performance, and the theatrics were there to supplement it. With a smooth delivery, the whole performance looked almost scripted like a well-written play.
Tagfish’s creators, Berlin, is a Flemish theatre group, founded by director Bart Baele and Yves Degryse in 2003. Blending elements of documentary, theatre and performance, their work is very much influenced by current affairs. Centered around making portraits of cities and presenting aspects of its socio-economic climate, Berlin aims to wake up a sort of social conscience among its audience. These worldly artists do not strive to make a statement, but rather bring one city’s issues to the stage, and letting each community and individual form their own opinion on what is presented.
Perhaps Tagfish’s appeal is, thanks to globalization, where citizens of the world are able to appreciate matters that are happening outside our own countries, or perhaps we’re glad to finally see a commentary about Germany, which does not concern the Third Reich. Berlin’s genius lies in its ability to use to shape our conscience on very realistic issues. Ultimately though, the theme of heritage conservation and commercialism are issues that every country has to face. As director Baele muses, “How much should we conserve, and how can we stop commercialisation so necessary for economic growth? It is impossible to make museums out of entire towns, and yet there are some things we need to protect. How do we find a balance between this?”
Tagfish was played at the National Museum from 14-16 April 2010.
To find out more about the National Museum’s activities, please visit http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/
For more information about theatre group Berlin, please visit http://www.berlinberlin.be
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Tags: berlin, documentary film, Film, national museum of singapore, tagfish, unesco world heritage site zollverein |
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